Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Wednesday Smallball

Tracy Seipel intoday'sSan Jose Mercury Newsran a piece which largely sums up the current sticky mess that is the A's plan to move to San Jose. This passage was particularly interesting:

Though there is no confirmation about what price the A's might have to pay to move to San Jose, (Stanford University sports economist Roger) Noll believes it's in the $25 million to $35 million range.

This amount issimilarto the $30-$50 million the Sacramento Kings were looking at paying to move to Anaheim last year. This is a unique cost for a stadium in San Jose and is in addition to whatever a ballot initiative in the city (required by law) will cost, assuming MLB chooses not to foot the bill.

Lowell Cohn Describes Meeting A's Owner John Fisher

If you have time, you should check outSanta Rosa Press Democrat columnist Lowell Cohn on Athletics After Dark. This recent is excellent and you get to hear Cohn describe his awkward experience of meeting majority owner John Fisher. Cohn originally wrote about the chance meeting with Fisherhere.

A Dim Outlook

Yahoo! Sports Jeff Passanpreviewedthe Athletics' outlook in 2012 and it doesn't look great in his opinion.A few salient excerpts:

Over a three-week span, the Oakland Athletics traded 37 percent of their strikeouts, 37.8 percent of their wins and 64.9 percent of their saves from 2011. The frenzied fire sale that saw Trevor Cahill, Gio Gonzalez, Andrew Bailey and Craig Breslow leave was expected, sure, but the speed with which the A’s eased them out of town felt sordid, the ugly consequence of baseball’s refusal to settle Oakland’s festering stadium situation....

The A’s might as well be the Ifs. Because as long as owner Lew Wolff and GM Billy Beane run their team with an indignant streak – trying ever so subtly to force MLB to figure out their situation – the perpetual limbo of the franchise will render it irrelevant. No team, not even the best-managed ones, can win with constant change. And that’s what the A’s are right now: a group of mercenaries who understand they’re not long for a green-and-yellow uniform.

Cahill and Gonzalez and Bailey and Breslow learned just like Tejada and Giambi and Zito and Hudson and Mulder and Haren and Damon and Street before them. Only a new stadium will stop the revolving door. And the almost-certain use of public money to get it makes the situation not only more tenuous but more revolting....